“And then, grandma?” I always kept asking this question while my grandma was telling her interesting (at least seemed to me as a child) story, raising up her tone, and pausing for a moment. Then I was three or four, and grandma’s folk tales allured me a lot; now I am approaching my thirties, and my grandma has passed by for nine years. Yet the time flied can scarcely diminish my memory of grandma’s telling stories, and even more vivid. I know that is, to some extent, my reconstruction of my childhood memory, or in other sense a kind of “cultural” history of myself.

I read Chartier first and then Darnton, and again Chartier. Honestly speaking, I like Darnton more, for not simply he is easily accessible but for his style of telling history. History, to me, is interpretations of the past, which is based on the recorded texts, either paper or not, and vary from each other in either form or content, given different aims, habits, and backgrounds of different interpreters. Moreover, it is a dynamic combination of product by both the interpreter and the audience to get across the past truth, on which Chartier would agree. History, as the art of human societies, is the collective memory of the contemporary and our predecessors, trying to replay the past, sometimes really close though never reaching the truth. History itself is of culture, and the style to interpret it is of art.

When I say “culture,” it does not simply refer to a broad sense of knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, customs, and other mental constructs (as Edward Tylor concluded), but to a set of generative schemes of “habitus”(borrowed from Pierre Bourdieu) or a system of encoded symbols (in the Geertzian framework). It differs from not only the time but also the space.

Let me go back to one of my grandma’s countryside folklores: an old big ape abducts a young lady (lao ma hou bei da gu liang). It goes like:

  Once there was a pretty young lady who is about the age of marriage. One day when she was embroidering in her boudoir, an old big ape was singing a rhyme in a tree outside the windows: My young lady, You are so pretty, I will nourish you fountain, I will feed you honey, If you respond to me, I will be so lucky. My young lady…The lady was curious and told her mother. Then she was admonished not to make any reply to the rhyme. The ape came to sing and call the lady everyday regardless of winds and rains. But another day, she could not keep from answering his call. Suddenly the big ape jumped into the boudoir, and abducted the young lady away.

In Darnton’s or Fromm’s eyes, the old big ape is the ravishing male, and to break her mother’s admonition is to lose her virginity. It is a Chinese local Little Red Riding Hood. Probably as my grandma came from the Dabie mountain of Southern Anhui Province, where once the habitat of thousands of monkeys, the big ape replaces the wolf in the French folktale, or a fox (a villain as in many other Chinese folktales), or a cat (as a suggestion of witchcraft as in Europe).The ape has a long tradition in the Chinese fictions, from the Tang legendaries to Liao Zhai Zhi Yi in the Qing Dynasty. In addition, I remember it as charming for partly no other entertainment during childhood, and partly the love to my grandma. For the sake of time, the cultural habitus has changed a lot, and nowadays seldom any kid would feel this story interesting as I did and do at present.

There comes the passion for history, for telling history, and for the humanity in history. The process of study itself also deserves scrutiny, for it will be or was a part of the culture. A story behind the published story seems more attractive to me, like how Darnton found his archive materials and how he worked on them for three or four great books, than the books themselves. It is the humanity and cultures that to make the history study worthwhile and even further to change the values in the school of the elite oriented. That is the reason of the triumph of The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Davis or any other historical interpretation of the ordinary. As a variety of human rights are declared more and more often, voices of the minority in the power system in history should also be heard, whom usually account for a large body of a society. To know their modes of living, is to recall the collective memories in the past, and to combine what people think today to understand the differences of social cultures spatio-temporally through historical interpretations.

Let me go a little further: it is a humanitarian enlightenment for cross-cultural understandings as the value of history study, from the past to the present, from the east to the west. On Confucius, the benevolence means to love others (ren zhe ai ren); on Christianity, God is love, to love your enemy, to give your other side of face. Although the comparison is not suitable, it is helpful. The mutual-understanding between selves and others cleaved by cultural differences can only be bolstered by cultural interpretations historically. That is moving when we skim through the history of freedom and anti-discrimination especially from the 18 century till now. The other day New York Times reported a fourteen years old African American girl Cheryl Green was killed just because the color of her skin. Here shall I quote one poem written by her to end up the essay, and may this kind of inhumanity remain only in history one day.

“I am:” I am black and beautiful/ I wonder how I will be living in the future/  I hear my dog barking when someone is at the door/   I see my mom go through something every day/  I want to live in a house and have a car and a good job...

 

听说，老外看了黄金bra会哭，我相信，记得看过一期鲁裕有约，说是采访对象哭场，并不是因为主持人厉害，而是正好触到了软肋上。所以他哭了。

 

我却笑着看完了全片，笑得像一朵盛开的菊花那样灿烂，虽然没有几万盘菊花那样滥情。这个超级大滥片，似乎只是为了成就一个周杰伦，一个看到就觉得欠扁的人。浮躁和虚假，使一部悲剧变成了黑色幽默。商业片不错，但如此商业化，不过是一个文化黑洞，扔进去的钱很多，饕餮而已，唯有被撑死的命运，倒是可惜了那么多的宫女坦胸相迎。别了，曾经是多么伟大的老谋子，他的电影生涯结束了。

 

《红高梁》，毫无疑问是我最喜欢的几部影片之一，它开创了中国电影史上一个崭新的世界。那种粗犷、雄浑而又简朴的红色和黄色，养活了多少中国年轻电影人的理想，成就了他们架上的奖杯。但是到了那红不再鲜，黄不再拙，而是变得妖艳、媚俗的时候，我知道，他的艺术理念被腐化了，泉眼枯竭了。

 

我曾心存幻想，是在《英雄》激荡的时候。这是一部成功的商业片，我看了很感动，以为中国商业片时代来到了。虽然其后而来的《十面》还有《无聊》都让人失望，但《千里》倒是一部还可以的生活片。可是后来，大肆炒作和吸引眼球，成了这位名导演所追求的唯一理念。我知道，他的时代结束了。

 

情节白痴，是现在很多人对老谋子的认同。且不谈《黄金》对雷雨的抄袭，但你抄也要抄得有水平，把一个家喻户晓的剧作，甚至照搬的台词，以及生硬的拼凑，一起炒了夹生饭，我只能佩服导演的胆量，或者本就想赚取外国人的眼泪和钱包，不过这份隐约看到麦克白纵欲的妻子、奥赛罗嫉妒的丈夫和李尔王中嗜武的父亲以及哈姆雷特中贵族生活恩怨情仇的昂贵pizza，却又想变成炊饼，怎么都不地道，又不是那么实成。我看到的是，一个勾引儿子的王后，一个残忍虚伪的国王，一个被后妈强奸而又好色懦弱的大王子，一个唱着“你为何要打我妈妈”的项羽式二王子，一个城府极深而又智力低下的小王子，还有一家都文武双全的蒋门。这部戏没有爱情，没有人情味，只有药味和肉味，还有血腥和屠杀。

 

再谈色彩。张的电影一贯以色见长，这次更加铺张。尤其是为了生硬加入青冷色调，而编了一幕驿站打戏，且不谈众多矛盾重重和令人捧腹的情节，色彩的运用上，也没有超出《藏龙》，甚至连《十面》都没有超越。过多的长镜头和远景，减少了紧张的气氛，缺乏短促的特写和音效，即使我不知道以情节为念，一样吸引不了我。

 

最后谈主题。老谋子想说什么呢。是想说皇权父权的威严，还是想说规矩的不容破坏，竟或是想表示中国男人女人都多，能演的起大场面，还是就铺陈道具的噱头。最后杀人后的焰火礼赞了什么，泼见在银幕上的毒药又象征了什么。我不得而知。如果说导演只是要表现矛盾的话，我想他成功了。

 

老谋子毕竟老了。 

 

有朋友问我你的space是不是废了，我说哪能啊，就这么点爱好，不过总是时间和场合不合适。回家MC了姐姐的婚礼，忙里忙外的，手头又没有电脑，space也就愈发显得荒芜，倒是这婚礼，主持的还像模像样的（妈说当初就怕主持的不好，姐和我吵）。现把当日的台词记下，各位看客如果以后有此需要，在下倒是乐于效劳，也再次祝福姐姐姐夫美满幸福。。。

各位嘉宾，各位亲朋好友，女士们、先生们，大家晚上好！关关雎鸠，在河之洲，窈窕淑女，君子好逑。今天是公元二〇〇六年十二月二十六日，是吕某小姐和王某先生新婚大喜的好日子。我受两位新人的委托来主持此次新婚庆典，并代表新郎新娘及双方父母向大家的到来表示最热烈的欢迎和最衷心的感谢，（掌声）祝大家，从政的平步青云，从商的财源广进，恋爱的是如胶似漆，求学的，是金榜题名。昨日本司仪夜观天象，发现物华天宝，龙光射牛斗之虚，今日此时正是良辰吉日。好，朋友们，龙驾祥云，凤舞九天，紫气东来，吉时已到。奏乐，有请新郎新娘！

伴随着庄严的婚礼进行曲，我们看见新郎新娘手挽着手，心连着心，共同步入婚姻神圣的殿堂。他们共享暮霭流岚虹霓，永不分离，终生相依，这就是伟大的爱情，坚贞就在这里，爱不仅爱你伟岸的身躯，也爱你坚持的位置，足下的土地。

俗话说，十年修得同船渡，百年修得共枕眠，新郎新娘是有缘千里来相会，现在正是他们一生中最幸福最美丽的时刻，大家说，新郎官帅不帅啊（帅～）新娘子美不美啊（美～）他们的结合好不好啊（好～）再大声说一遍，好不好啊（好～～）。嗳，我们今天的这对新人，一个是才华阜比仙，一个是气质美如兰，一个是为人洁白皙，鬑鬑颇有须，一个是小山重叠金明灭，鬓云欲渡香腮雪，一个是文质彬彬的纤纤君子，一个是秀外慧中的红粉佳人，他们的结合真是花开并蒂，枝谐连理，珠联璧合，佳偶天成。好，现在有请主婚人某某某致贺辞，大家欢迎（掌声，致辞，掌声）谢谢某先生！

接下来是传统行夫妻之礼的仪式。古人云，谁言寸草心，报得三春晖。首先，请新郎新娘向前几步走，向着双方父母三鞠躬。一拜高堂，感谢父母养育恩。二叩首，感谢父母多年为我们的操劳。三叩首，永远孝顺父母。好，二拜嘉宾，向着今天在座的各位三鞠躬。一鞠躬，感谢大家光临。二鞠躬，祝大家身体健康。三鞠躬，祝大家心想事成。夫妻对拜！一叩首，相亲相爱到白首。二叩首，互敬互让天长地久。按照我们当地的规矩哦，谁腰弯得低谁就爱对方多一些。三叩首，恩恩爱爱免忧愁。嗳，你问我爱你有多深，鞠躬代表我的心。咱们新郎官儿是当仁不让。好，接下来，共入……这个洞房嘛，待会再说，新郎先不要着急哦。礼成！我想现在除了我们一对新人非常高兴之外呢，其次就是双方父母了。下面我们以热烈的掌声欢迎父母代表致谢辞！（掌声，讲话，掌声）谢谢父亲大人。

也谢谢今天到场的所有亲友，大家人到，情到，心意到，来共同祝福这对新人，为他们祈祷，为他们欢呼，为他们喝彩！祝他们是真情永驻，至爱永存！下面让我们来共同见证他们爱的誓言。（拿起圣经）请新郎举起自己的左手，掌心向外，王某先生，你是否愿意娶你身边的这位小姐为妻，并保证无论贫穷疾病，不离不弃？（我愿意）吕某小姐，你是否愿意让你身边的这位先生作你的丈夫，并保证无论贫穷疾病，不离不弃？（我愿意）Now under the name of the God, I pronouce you husband and wife.好，你们可以交换戒指了。有道是钻石有价，真爱无价。此刻，这对新人一定是非常激动，我来问一下新娘，现在你最想对新郎说什么？（执子之手，与子偕老）好文采，将来一定是一位好妻子，那新郎呢……（我会一辈子对你好的）好实在，将来一定是一位好丈夫。好，现在请伴郎端上交杯酒。玫瑰色的美酒象征着两颗挚爱的心。我们说爱情就像火红的花儿是越开越靓，爱情就像是芬芳的美酒是越陈越香。此时此刻，新郎新娘，是手挽着手，四目相对，嗳，四目相对），含情脉脉，一往情深。好，不要喝干，要年年有余，象征着爱情有余，甜蜜有余。请礼仪小姐送上喜娃，祝福他们是早生贵子，最好是一双龙凤。

好，朋友们，接下来的环节是新郎新娘共同浇灌眼前的这座香槟塔。待会大家都来尝一尝这带有喜气的香槟，喝了它，是年长者延年益寿，年轻人如日中天，小朋友们是天天向上！好，香槟一开，黄金万两，甘冽醇美的香槟像汩汩的清泉流入大家幸福的心田，我在这里祝福这对新人和在场的所有各位是，生活一天更比一天好，事业一层更比一层高！请大家都把面前的酒杯斟满……（【祝酒歌】）美酒～飘香～歌声美～……祝福新人永远合合美美）让我们一同举杯，祝福新郎新娘一生平安！百年好合！白首偕老！干！祝大家喝好，吃好，玩好，开～席！